Confirmed with Link: Oilers hire Stan Bowman as GM & Executive VP- press conference at 10:30

[WaitingForUser]

If other GMs in this League black ball making deals with Bowman due to bad PR, this could be a horrific signing from a hockey standpoint.

I would be more concerned with players with wives and young children black balling the team. The GMs are always gonna take of their own.

So here is the scenario:

You and your boss are made aware that someone who works under you has sexually assaulted someone they are in a position of power over.

Over the next few days or weeks you show up to work and the person who sexually assaulted that person is still working and is still in a position where they could
potentially interact with the person they victimized. No suspension pending an investigation. Nothing. Just business as usual until the important project is completed?

You’re just going to be quiet about that and let it proceed?

Exactly!

 

[McTonyBrar]

Racist? Well that really shouldn't play a part in this hire.

No lol racism towards someone who posts an interview for example and is a minority

 

[TheNumber4]

I would be more concerned with players with wives and young children black balling the team. The GMs are always gonna take of their own.

Yeh my impression is that GMs will take care of their own. From the outside looking in, and my general knowledge of the Boys Club atmosphere surrounding this League. I hope that's the case, JJ would have been in position to make that call though.

Players is another matter. I could see it happening, but I could also see the majority of players if offered a contract by the Oil, reaching out to Kennedy to get more information on Bowman to see if he's worth black balling at that point .

 

[ChaoticOrange]

If other GMs in this League black ball making deals with Bowman due to bad PR, this could be a horrific signing from a hockey standpoint.

given Bowman's trade history, blackballing him would actually be a favour to us.

 

[TheNumber4]

No lol racism towards someone who posts an interview for example and is a minority

f*** those guys. Don't let them get to you Tony.

 

[TheNumber4]

given Bowman's trade history, blackballing him would actually be a favour to us.

Doesn't look great. A mixed bag skewing towards more bad than good. Here's one analysis of his work on trades:

"Stan Bowman did make some nice trades during his tenure as General Manager of the Blackhawks. When you break down his grades, he finishes with:
A=2
B=13
C=11
D=14
F=8
Bowman was just never able to get the correct value out of any significant asset. His emotions would get the best of him in a plethora of ways, from panic trading after playoff losses or bringing back old faces. It’s clearly a good thing that Bowman won’t lead the Blackhawks as they head into the NHL trade deadline."

Hopefully with Jackson and our new brain trust we can skew toward more A grade trades than F.

Source for above: Looking Back And Grading Stan Bowmans' 48 Most Influential Trades That Shaped The Blackhawks | Inside The Rink

 

[Shizuka]

Just so hard to reconcile this with my love of this team. Even judging by the merit of what he's done as a GM... it f***ing stinks. His resume is garbage. A nepo baby hire on the back of his father's name, who was handed the reins of a team built completely by Tallon and proceeded to completely f*** up the roster. There isn't one good thing the Hawks fanbase has to say about this clown, in any regard.

At the very least he sat on a sexual assault report, didn't go to HR and just reported to his boss, and then wiped his hands clean. He only went into cover your ass mode after it came out.

Just a completely indefensible hire man.. I'm still f***ing stunned at what an ignorant, tone deaf move this is. Pretty damn telling Jackson put his profile to private the night before. A craven move, and Fat Stauffer indicated both he and that asshole boarded a plane to fly back out east and go into hiding again. Also Fat Stauffer and the media lickspittles rolling out the full court PR press for this cretin.

Yet *another* bush league move by this organization. Unreal. Can't even clap back at other fan bases, the evidence is all right there. Nicholson, Kane, Perry, f***ing Virtanen.. the god damn owner and his $70000 gift for a 'film project' to a 17 year old.

 

[Stoneman89]

So here is the scenario:

You and your boss are made aware that someone who works under you has sexually assaulted someone they are in a position of power over.

Over the next few days or weeks you show up to work and the person who sexually assaulted that person is still working and is still in a position where they could potentially interact with the person they victimized. No suspension pending an investigation. Nothing. Just business as usual until the important project is completed?

You’re just going to be quiet about that and let it proceed?

Someone has REPORTEDLY been sexually assaulted. You are working out of town many days, totally consumed with the important project which must be finished with a couple weeks or you will lose out, and your boss has told you he is handling things, including an investigation to see if it has merit. It's called a hierarchy for a reason, and different levels do what they're told, especially if they are advised things will get handled. So yes, I would focus on my job and assume it is being handled, as I think most others would. What are you going to do - an end around your boss and leave the project? So very easy to say now with the benefit of hindsight.

 

[Thomas Tatar]

k guys, how has no one mentioned this clown traded a near prime Janmark for peanuts to Vegas (!) of all teams!

 

[Stoneman89]

Just so hard to reconcile this with my love of this team. Even judging by the merit of what he's done as a GM... it f***ing stinks. His resume is garbage. A nepo baby hire on the back of his father's name, who was handed the reins of a team built completely by Tallon and proceeded to completely f*** up the roster. There isn't one good thing the Hawks fanbase has to say about this clown, in any regard.

At the very least he sat on a sexual assault report, didn't go to HR and just reported to his boss, and then wiped his hands clean. He only went into cover your ass mode after it came out.

Just a completely indefensible hire man.. I'm still f***ing stunned at what an ignorant, tone deaf move this is. Pretty damn telling Jackson put his profile to private the night before. A craven move, and Fat Stauffer indicated both he and that asshole boarded a plane to fly back out east and go into hiding again. Also Fat Stauffer and the media lickspittles rolling out the full court PR press for this cretin.

Yet *another* bush league move by this organization. Unreal. Can't even clap back at other fan bases, the evidence is all right there. Nicholson, Kane, Perry, f***ing Virtanen.. the god damn owner and his $70000 gift for a 'film project' to a 17 year old.

If his boss said he was going to handle it, don't you think it would be the boss' responsibility to go to HR?

 

[Joey Moss]

Every GM candidate has flaws. There is not a single GM who has made correct decisions 100% of the time. Jim Nill and Bill Zoto have made poor moves.

Stan Bowman was in a spot with Chicago where the core wanted to keep contending. He had to make a move to help the team in the present, which was Seth Jones. Panarin for Saad was a cap motivated move.

Brouwer for a 1st was a great trade
Johnny Oduya helped them win a cup in 2013
Timonen and Vermette were huge in 2015
He got DeBrincat out of the Andrew Shaw trade
Hjalmarsson for Murphy was a progressive move

I think his track record of trading is pretty positive.

The off-ice issues are difficult to comment on from the outside. He has approval from Kyle beach and Sheldon Kennedy. That to me is all that matters in this.

I preferred Bowman over Hunter or Botterill. Would've liked to see K. Gretzky promoted. Hope it works out.

 

[McTonyBrar]

I wonder if more blame fell on Quenneville. We were hearing rumours of teams or a team being interested in Bowman but no one being interested in Quenneville. I wonder why

 

[Shathar]

Did he shirk his responsibility though? Or did his boss, the President of the Club, McDonagh take that responsibility on his own shoulders when he told Bowman, Chevy, Q, and others in that meeting that he would handle it.

I really don't know. It's easy for me or anyone to get high and mighty from the comfort of our couches. Maybe.

The allure to pass responibility on to someone else is powerful. So powerful, that words like 'I'll take care of it' can get it done. Again, I really don't know how to answer that. All I know is it would have been one hell of a (different) story if, after McDonagh DIDN'T handle it, that someone--anyone--had the balls to step up and do so properly.

 

[Spawn]

Someone has REPORTEDLY been sexually assaulted. You are working out of town many days, totally consumed with the important project which must be finished with a couple weeks or you will lose out, and assume your boss has this under control, as he's stated. And you also assume it's under investigation to make sure it has some merit, as per your boss.

I think you and I are just very different people.

I think its certainly fair to hold the position that the suspension from the league along with the work he's made in the time since is enough to say he should now be considered okay for this position. But the stance that he did nothing wrong or was not negligent in his actions? Nuh uh. And to be clear, the 3rd party investigators, the league and Bowman himself all agree he should have acted differently.

There are a lot of posts in this thread, so maybe thats not what you're suggesting and I've missed something. If so, my apologies.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Do any of our esteemed insiders know if we were looking at anyone else or did we use the blinders again?

 

[foshizzle]

Bowman took a 29 year old Toews and 27 year old Kane and turned them into a team resembling the Oilers in the decade of darkness…

 

[K1984]

I feel the same way. But if my boss says to focus on a very important time of my job, and that HE will look after this and deal with it, I probably proceed to do my own job and trust he will do his. And I suspect most people on here would do the same if that situation were presented to them. Unless I totally don't trust him to deal with it, but I have no idea what the relationship was between them, other than boss and underling.

This is what 99% of people would do, which is why I find the armchair QBing of this so grating. Going over your bosses head, especially for something this sensitive is not something people do no matter how much they claim that wouldn’t be the case as they call shots from the cheap seats.

Was the mantra of “following the chain of command isn’t sufficient in cases of sexual assault” even a thing 14 years ago?

 

[BleedingOil]

1 grown man says another touched him and the other says it was consensual, the team president says he will handle it and eventually HR tells Aldrich to either resign or they will investigate. He resigns and nothing is investigated…how is this on bowman?

 

[Pavel10]

Bowman took a 29 year old Toews and 27 year old Kane and turned them into a team resembling the Oilers in the decade of darkness…

This is my number one issue. I mean of all the gm names thrown about why do you hire a guy with the baggage who wasn't even a very good gm. Bowman was not the Connor McDavid of GMs by a long shot. Also for the love of God why would you make this move before mcdavid's wedding?

 

[Pavel10]

Every GM candidate has flaws. There is not a single GM who has made correct decisions 100% of the time. Jim Nill and Bill Zoto have made poor moves.

Stan Bowman was in a spot with Chicago where the core wanted to keep contending. He had to make a move to help the team in the present, which was Seth Jones. Panarin for Saad was a cap motivated move.

Brouwer for a 1st was a great trade
Johnny Oduya helped them win a cup in 2013
Timonen and Vermette were huge in 2015
He got DeBrincat out of the Andrew Shaw trade
Hjalmarsson for Murphy was a progressive move

I think his track record of trading is pretty positive.

The off-ice issues are difficult to comment on from the outside. He has approval from Kyle beach and Sheldon Kennedy. That to me is all that matters in this.

I preferred Bowman over Hunter or Botterill. Would've liked to see K. Gretzky promoted. Hope it works out.

To assess a gm you need to invert things and look at their bad moves. Being a gm is much more about not making awful choices. The #1 issue on this team is the Darnell nurse contract. The funny thing is Holland's replacement made the exact same awful decision in Chicago with Seth Jones.

 

[Sheikyerbouti]

"The lead investigator, former assistant US attorney Reid Schar, stated that Bowman's failure to report the alleged assault had consequences, eventually leading to the perpetrator committing further acts of sexual abuse.”

Here's the thing though, what was true then, is not even true today. Nobody would ever suggest a sexual assault be investigated internally now, and that was one of the recommendations. There are some laws that make disclosure mandatory now, but there was not then, anywhere, which is why they did nothing wrong. 15 years ago the majority of experts still believed a victim could be expected to advocate for themselves, but know we know better.

I have deep experience and knowledge of policy and laws on this topic and what Bowman alluded to in the presser, that it's hard to believe someone you know could so something like this, is the endpoint of 99.9% of investigations. It shows he understands the reasons for the mistakes, which is rare.

Ultimately, they were faced with two people saying two different things. When you don't have all the information, it's very hard to ruin someone's life based on a belief. That's why disclosure needs to happen, so people with inherent biases are not tasked with making decisions.

A lawyer today, would speak entirely different, because that is how much this field has grown. Lots of people in this thread are viewing past events with knowledge of current norms and practices, that did not exist 15 years. Even the investigation post event would be considered passe, which shows how quickly things have moved. 15 years ago there was no good policy, laws, or theory to fall back on, everyone had to figure it out themselves.

 

[Davo Ikinzom]

1 grown man says another touched him and the other says it was consensual, the team president says he will handle it and eventually HR tells Aldrich to either resign or they will investigate. He resigns and nothing is investigated…how is this on bowman?

You know you don't have to defend the guy and downplay all of the awful things he did just because he's apart of the Oilers now, right?

I've always found that sort of behaviour weird when it comes to sports fans. Very tribalistic like politics.

 

[TheNumber4]

I really don't know. It's easy for me or anyone to get high and mighty from the comfort of our couches. Maybe.

The allure to pass responibility on to someone else is powerful. So powerful, that words like 'I'll take care of it' can get it done. Again, I really don't know how to answer that. All I know is it would have been one hell of a (different) story if, after McDonagh DIDN'T handle it, that someone--anyone--had the balls to step up and do so properly.

I think the assumption by the men in that meeting according to the report, is they were told the boss would get it done and they assumed it got done, as Aldrich was forced to resign.

I agree that the allure of someone taking that responsibility and for you to pass the buck, is strong. That seems to be what happened here. Usually in any organization if a boss tells you they’ll handle it, you take that at face value and assume as such.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

You know you don't have to defend the guy and downplay all of the awful things he did just because he's apart of the Oilers now, right?

I've always found that sort of behaviour weird when it comes to sports fans. Very tribalistic like politics.

If the Flames, Leafs, or Canucks hired this man you know this forum would die of laughter.

 

[belair]

Ken Holland is the reason this organization didn’t win a cup.

Daryl Katz is they reason they haven't won a Cup. His meddling set them back years. This may be the first GM in a long while that didn't inherit a problemed roster.